The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair is Special Collections’ Featured Book for December 2014

Binghamton University Special Collections has selected The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, in celebration of its 50th anniversary, as its featured book for December 2014. Written by Bill Cotter and Bill Young, longtime members of the World’s Fair Collectors Society, the book captures the history of this event through vintage photographs. The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, called “the Billion-dollar Fair” lived up to its reputation. It was the largest international exhibition ever built in the United States with more than one hundred fifty pavilions and exhibits spread over six hundred forty acres.

With the cold war in full swing, the fair offered visitors a refreshingly positive view of the future, mirroring the official theme: Peace through Understanding. Guests could travel back in time through a display of full-sized dinosaurs, or look into the future where underwater hotels and flying cars were commonplace. They could enjoy Walt Disney’s popular shows, or study actual spacecraft flow in orbit. More than fifty-one million guests visited the fair before it closed forever in 1965.

The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair is part of the Local History Collection. To see the book visit Special Collections, located on the second floor of the Glenn G. Bartle Library off of the North Reading Room. Special Collections is open to the public 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Monday – Friday.